It's easy to drive an EE to drink—but what drives one to poetry?

Q.My SPICE simulation worked perfectly, but now I've a large production batch which doesn't meet its specification.A. Analog circuit simulation is one of the most valuable tools that has emerged over the last two decades, and my company offers an impressive array of SPICE models to aid circuit designers. But simulation is not real life. SPICE models rarely emulate all the second- and third-order effects which make analog circuit design so challenging.

It is critically important to build, and exhaustively test, hardware versions of your analog designs, not just run interminable simulations.

At high frequency, and with very high precision designs, it is even important to make the prototype as similar to the final production layout as is possible, because parasitic inductance and capacitance from the printed circuit board can have a substantial effect on HF performance and cause big differences between the simulation, the breadboard and the final production version.

Designs in their hundreds at Analog

hang in the air,

Ideas from the Valley, ideas from the

timid or bold,

Designs that are pearls and designs that

are rubbish are there,

And there with the rest are designs that

will never be old.

There's circuits from everywhere that

triple Es may reside,

And many to count are the abstract and

many of use,

And many that seem so attractive they

can't be denied,

But few that perform when you build 'em

and turn on the juice.

I wish one could know them, I wish there

were tokens to tell

Those fortunate circuits that work when

you turn on the power;

And then one could publish them freely

and not strike a knell

For our firm's reputation for circuit ideas

that inspire.

But now you may stare as you like but

you cannot devise

Infallible ways to ensure that success be

foretold;

They send to the ceiling the smoke of

untimely demise

Designs that will die on their bread-

boards and never be old.

(With apologies to A. E. Houseman)

This is a parody of one of the poems (XXIII) in Houseman's "A Shropshire Lad."

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. quietly announced that it was rolling out a new wrinkle to the powerful safety feature called stability control, adding even more lifesaving potential to a technology that has already been very successful.

It won't be too much longer and hardware design, as we used to know it, will be remembered alongside the slide rule and the Karnaugh map. You will need to move beyond those familiar bits and bytes into the new world of software centric design.

People who want to take advantage of solar energy in their homes no longer need to install a bolt-on solar-panel system atop their houses -- they can integrate solar-energy-harvesting shingles directing into an existing or new roof instead.

Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.